Strong Taco Game

I LOVE MEXICAN FOOD! Enough to go to a restaurant that doesn't take reservations and the wait is about 2 hours long? Ummm...no. So we strategically picked a Saturday afternoon on a long weekend during an off-peak lunch hour and prayed we could get into Grand Electric right away. The taco gods were with us! Got in and seated in no time! On offer were 7 tacos (they ran out of the beef cheek [cue sad music]), so we got the baja fish, spicy arbol chicken, pork belly, and chorizo and queso. 

The baja fish was a fried filet drizzled with crema under shredded cabbage and radish; it was a delicious balance of warm and crunchy (fish) and light and refreshing (accompaniments). A great start! The least messy and, one of my favourites, was the chorizo and queso. I always found queso pretty salty so I was a bit worried, but, hot damn!, this was bursting with mad flavour. The smokiness of the chorizo definitely balanced the cheese - one more, por favor! Swinging onto the other side of the spectrum, the spicy arbol chicken - my least favourite. Nothing wrong with it, per se, but didn't have that wow factor that the other tacos did. Caution to those who can't handle spice, this taco means business. Lastly (for this round at least), the pork belly. Cubed pork along with some type of mango and turnip relish, made for a perfect summertime nosh.

Round 2 consisted of our favourites - the pork belly, chorizo and queso and, a new addition, the roast pork. Not a fan of roast anything, I reluctantly tried it. Okay, Grand Electric, you win. It was tender, moist, sweet, pickly and now I'm running out of adjectives.

Tacos, aside. Let's talk about the magnificence that is the mission wings. DO NOT MISS OUT ON THESE! They serve the entire wing including the tip, which is doused with crema, hot sauce and sesame seeds. Perfect crisp on these, no skimp on the meat and not half as messy as I thought they would be. Even then, I would probably lick my fingers. Yep, they are that good.

Devouring this entire meal, I kept reminiscing to our time at Big Star (in Chicago). Guess what? I learned that the chef here did a brief stint at the windy city establishment. They sure taught him well. You do what you do Grand Electric, because you sure do it well.

Hipsterville

Bam! You are bombarded with plaid shirts, black-rimmed glasses, tattoos, communal tables - the typical hipster hangout (you would think); what doesn't cross your mind is refined, finessed, flavourful plates. Let me rewind back and tell you how we decided to venture to the west side. We acquired a beautiful Italian bottle of wine (Eubea Roinos) from Charlie's Burgers that was yearning for some steak. Thankfully, Charlie's Burgers recommended a couple of menu items from various restaurants and we salivated when we saw the Côte de Boeuf description. And so there we were - sitting at a private table at the back, by the kitchen, eagerly waiting the delightfulness that would grace our mouths. We were warned that it would be about a half hour to 40 minutes until our beef arrived but we knew it was a lot of food, so we happily sipped our wine and waited.

Since we were right by the kitchen, the fried chicken caught our eye. Yes, I know, lots of food coming....but but fried chicken! It was in the sharing section of the menu so we assumed (and was confirmed by the wait staff) that it is a 10-piece meal with sides. We really didn't want 10 pieces of chicken or to take the rest home, so we asked if we could sample 2 pieces instead, and they could charge us for it. You all know that I don't go to a resto twice and we conveyed that to the wait staff, but all we got was a flat no. He didn't check with anyone; just a straight no. Douchebag. Fuck your fried chicken. A little annoyed, but the steak calmed me down a bit. Look at this beauty!

Medium rare, cooked to perfection, a little fatty and perfectly seasoned. Believe it or not, we actually had leftovers! The meat was accompanied by the creamiest mashed potatoes and a broccolini that had a nice spice to it.

As we were chowing down, we saw one of the chefs make this ridiculously big doughnut dessert and I had to resist the temptation of just picking up a fork and walking to it. Thankfully they also served it as a smaller version. Hurray! Otherwise, there would have been more swearing in this blog post. Lo and behold! The "donut". The editor in me just wants to scratch that spelling of the menu. Ugh. Anyhoo, what is it? Fried dough, ice cream, chocolate sauce, strawberries, pineapples, whipped cream and, of course, a cherry on top. All calories, all deliciousness, just can't go wrong. Oh and the larger version has 2 doughnuts and is twice the size. You just have to see it to believe it.

I must say, I was surprised by how flavourful everything was. After P&L burger, I didn't have much hope. I'm glad to say I was wrong.

To Marben or Not to Marben?

Spoiler Alert: Not to Marben. I mean never ever.

Let me start by saying we went to Marben for Winterlicous. To many restaurants, this means serving sub-par food; I say, if you can't hold your standards for Summerlicious/Winterlicious, don't do it at all. Isn't the point to reach out to a larger clientele and showcase what you can do? Apparently, Marben didn't think so. Also, why do restos create "new menus" for the occasion? Are people not good enough for things on your regular menu? Okay, enough of my ranting and let's get down to the food. Another spoiler alert: There will be more ranting.

So we got to Marben on a Saturday afternoon, 12:30 pm to be exact. Take note of that time; it is important. We sit down, get some wine, look at the menu and are ready to order. I'm so excited about the dessert: Nutella creme brulee. Right, right? The server comes over and informs me that they have run out. It's 12 bloody 30 in the afternoon; how the fuck can you run out? The other two desserts on the menu are a vanilla panna cotta and a chocolate truffle - yeah even a monkey could tell you that everyone would probably order the creme brulee so make enough! My brain just can't process this. Utterly ridiculous.

We got some average foccacia to start and then the catastrophe continued. The steamed PEI mussels arrived with chorizo, lemongrass, ginger and chilli. Note to the chef: lemongrass doesn't work and has no business being close to mussels. Sorry PEI for ruining your mussels. It had this weird flavour going on. OMG, I know what it is! It smelled liked my foot balm! That's an image for you.

We also got the smoked potato and truffle soup, which tasted like smoked potato and truffles. Moving on.

I tried the Zarazuela: Spanish seafood "stew" with shrimp, squid and octopus. This was more of a curry consistency, which was fine, but mostly tasted like "fancy" canned tomato soup. My apologies to all the seafood in it - you died for nothing.

The other main was John's burger. The gooey aged cheddar cheese burger was cooked to a perfect medium rare (yay, there's something positive in this review. Didn't think that would happen) but what the hell was with all the sweetness? Perhaps it was from the Branston chutney? This burger has no business being a main; move it to the dessert list! I get that the chef probably wanted a balance of spicy and sweet, but this was a major fail.

At this point, I didn't care anymore and neither did our server. We told him about all the food when he asked "How was it?" after each course, but after the dessert course, even he didn't bother to ask us how it was or even offer us coffee. To his defence, we're glad he didn't ask; we didn't care for much of anything anymore. Haven't our tastebuds being tortured enough? Apparently not.

Dessert is usually the saving grace of a meal; not today. The vanilla panna cotta was tasty, but a bit gummy, not the usual jelly-like consistency, and if you boast about it having grappa, I bloody well need to taste it. No dice; I guess I'll just do a shot of grappa at home.

The other dessert was also an abomination - chocolate and olive oil truffle with red pepper raspberry. It was a thick, dense dollop of chocolate truffle, which looked sadly at us and said "just eat me and save me from more embarrassment." I think everyone just gave up; wait, that means that they tried. Where is Will Smith from Men In Black? I need this memory erased.

Step In and Get Comfortable

You may never want to leave Sabai Sabai - it's like a warm blanket on a cold day and boy was it cold outside today! Walking in, the decor wasn't particularly exciting but, thankfully, the food was. Note to weekday lunchers, I had heard that the service was slow, and it is, so if you are looking for a quick 1-hour lunch, look elsewhere. Our eyes were on three dishes and that's what we got: Chicken Khao Soi, Beef Massaman Curry and Pad Gra Prow. The Chicken Khao Soi was definitely the milder of the two dishes. I loved the contrasting textures with the crispy noodles on top and the softer ones once you breach the surface. The soup was thinner in consistency than a curry with a mild coconut flavour. It was good, but the other two were better.

The Pad Gra Prow with pork was the crowd favourite. We were told to break the egg and mix everything together and what we got was a surprisingly spicy, sticky, unbelievably flavourful concoction. Holy chillies batman; this one is not for the faint of heart.

My favourite was the Massaman curry; although I've had plenty of these in my lifetime, the beef in this one was spot on. It just melted in your mouth and took you to places you couldn't even imagine. I sometimes tuned out of conversations when eating this - loved. every. bite.

We also had the fried bananas with coconut ice cream to seal the deal. As you can see (or not, since we forgot to take a photo) that it was the bees knees. Although Sabai Sabai is not up to par with Khao San Road or Sukothai, it will surely get there.

Side note: Thanks to our awesome server/barman - great energy, warm personality and delicious drink-making skills. Loved the Thai mojito!